The ‘Crashgate’ fall-out is going up a gear with the news that Flavio Briatore is preparing to sue the FIA for loss of income. The FIA has earlier announced it will protest the Tribune de Grande Instance’s ruling that the lifetime ban they gave Briatore was illegal. That story and more in today’s round-up:

Comment of the day

I heard a story ages ago that as team mates at Williams at the 1992 British Grand Prix (Silverstone) Mansell set a hot lap, Patrese then went out for his final qualifying run and put in what he thought was a stonker of a lap pipping Mansell?óÔé¼Ôäós time ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ Mansell seeing this hopped back into his car & smashed Patrese?óÔé¼Ôäós time by two seconds. On Mansell?óÔé¼Ôäós return to the pits the story goes that Patrese approached Mansell when he got out of his car and ?óÔé¼?ôcupped?óÔé¼?Ø his (Mansell?óÔé¼Ôäós) balls ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ saying after that lap outrageous lap he just wanted to see how big they really were ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ (If true quite a nice endorsement from a fellow driver).Pat

I’ve heard that before too although I can’t find a reference for it anywhere. Does anyone else know if it’s true?

From the forum

Narboza22 asks an interesting question about an F1 car’s aerodynamic wake – could teams purposefully create a car which produces severe turbluence to make it harder for others to overtake? Have a look at the discussion so far in the forum.

Happy birthday!

There are no F1 Fanatic birthdays today but I’ve just found out it was Gerdoner’s birthday yesterday, so belated best wishes to him.

On this day in F1

Argentina held its first round of the world championship on this day in 1953. In fact, this was the first time the world championship featured a race outside of Europe, apart from the Indianapolis 500.

The locals turned out in massive numbers to support their hero Juan Manuel Fangio. But the race organisers were ill-equipped to handle a crowd numbering between 300-400,000. One car crashed into the crowd, provoking a general panic in which at least ten people were killed. The race was won by Alberto Ascari.

We had the report of FIA and the report of the stewards and there was not evidence that I was involved in the accident.

That quote from the article Keith linked to. I wonder what drugs Briatore is on? The French Court decision said only that FiA overstepped it’s own rules and that they could not legally issue a ban. It did NOT exonerate Briatore from guilt or involvement.

Once a conman, always a conman, I guess. But if he really believes this, I think this time he has conned himself.